Birdsong

 For a little while yesterday, just a little while, with the sun out, it felt like spring.  I wasn't out in it long as I had to drive to Tam's, and it took 2 hrs to get there as I got stuck behind a couple of slow vehicles and the road does not lend itself to overtaking in many places.  I decided not to fret and just plod and enjoy the scenery around me. It had been very foggy overnight but had cleared to a beautiful sunny day when I set off after breakfast.

I pulled into a layby on the way, as I wanted to take photos of another area laid to waste recently by Storm Darragh.  This pine woodland was on the hillside and just this one swathe had been taken out and reduced to splinters by a sudden extra-strong gust.

There had been a very hard frost, and this area and others in the valley bottom and side which don't get much sun, stayed frosted all day.

The hills give rough grazing to sheep and whilst you might think there it very unwelcoming countryside, you can just make out a little farmstead near the right hand side of the photo. I think the farmstead is in the trees, but this is an outbuilding and a trailer I reckon.

The birds also note the slow lengthening of the days and I noted this morning there is the start of a tentative dawn chorus, which is a real positive.  I noted it today because I had to take out the corpse of a little chestnut brown Field Mouse (they have white tummies and big ears too and are seriously Cute . . .) which the girls had run to earth under my BED! I was woken by frantic carpet-scratching in the vicinity of my head beneath the bed and hanging out of said bed, could see Lulu scrabbling at an upturned box of tissues.  They do stake-outs on the cupboard under the stairs where I keep the bedlinen and whatever useful boxes of Stuff I can shove in there, so I guess this mouse ventured forth.  This old house has walls lined with pitch pine tongue and groove and I think they must have made their way in behind them over the years.  Part of the house is also below ground level so I guess that is where they gained entry.

I spent the day at Tam's playing with Rosie (who wants to try standing without holding on now) and tackling the washing up mountain.  I think I must have washed and dried just about every piece of cutlery, every pan, several big oven dishes and various plates, bowls and mugs.  I could clock Jon one for never doing it (and Tam claims Rosie needs her attention . . .)  She actually got several consecutive hours sleep recently and came down with some energy, but that was a one off.  Rosie has been diagnosed with Eczema and has also been constipated, so neither of those conditions have helped her sleep at nights and she may wake up to 20 times.  Jon has Eczema and I have the Asthma gene (which is connected to Eczema) so I really hope she doesn't go on to develop Asthma.

It was the most beautiful late afternoon drive home. I wish there had been somewhere to stop as the road climbed up into the mountains out of Aber, as the sun on the dead bracken was so beautiful.  I stopped at a layby higher up though - this is a favourite view of mine - and took a few photos of the lengthening shadows.

Today I have the heater boiler service so need to turn it off in the cupboard - I need to GET into the cupboard first as it is blocked with 3 different sized baby car seats, cat food boxes, bottles of fizzy mineral water etc.  I may be gone some time . . .

Yawning - and a recipe for Lemon Curd Biscuits

 Whenever I need to be away early the next day, I have a broken night's sleep the previous night, and today is no exception (nor was yesterday).  Yesterday I was seeing my friend Pam before I went to the Quilting group, was awake for 3 hrs in the night, and didn't wake again till 8.30.  I didn't get much done at Quilting group - too much background noise spoils concentration but I began another block and sewed part of that before leaving early so that I would get home before dark.  I had shut the cats in for the day and just as well as the foot hunt was round after foxes and still here gone 5 o'clock looking for stray hounds, one of which was in my orchard.  You never know when they are going to be over this way.

The mountain route to Tam's

Today I'm going to see Tam and Rosie, which will be lovely as I've not seen them since Christmas.  It will be a foggy journey though, taken steadily.  I have put the red cabbage (8p at Christmas!) I got her on the side, so hopefully I shan't forget it.  I will see them again on Saturday as we are going to a Wassailing at an apple orchard near Llanidloes (about an hour from here on the way to Aberystwyth). That's something I've always wanted to do (I'll add more info about Wassailing later).

Excuse the blue background - recipe copied from an earlier blog post of mine.  They are a shortbread type biscuit.  I made a batch of these this week and they were swooped on at Quilting Group yesterday (and one lady asked for the recipe), plus Ed's helper was making inroads into them too!  Right, back to bed for an hour or so and let's hope I sleep, but as I'm going to set the alarm that normally prevents all thought of sleep occurring!

LEMON CURD BISCUITS

150 g (6 oz) plain flour (3/4 American cup)

1 tsp baking powder

100 g (4 oz) cornflour (1/2 cup)

100 g (4 oz) butter     (1/2 cup)

100 g (4 oz) caster sugar (1/2 cup)

2 egg yolks

Grated rind of 2 (washed) lemons

Sift the flour, baking powder and cornflour into a mixing bowl.  Melt the butter and stir into the sugar, egg yolks and lemon rind.  Add the flour and mix all the ingredients together to give a smooth biscuit dough.  Roll into a “sausage”, wrap in cling film and chill briefly in fridge – not too long or it goes like concrete!

Preheat the oven to moderately hot (200 deg. C/400 deg. F, Gas Mark 6).  Roll out the dough onto a floured surface to 3mm (1/8” thick).  Place the biscuits onto a greased baking tray and bake for about 10 mins.  Cool slightly then lift with a knife onto a wire rack to cool.

Just a normal little Welsh town

 I slept well again last night (writing that should put the kibosh on a good night's sleep for a 3rd night!) and went into Llandod straight after breakfast.  I got my paper from the newsagent (I like to support local shops), posted my letter to Holland, and had a wander along the High Street to look in the charity shop windows.  In the Bracken Trust shop I spotted a red/white/brown checked coat which looked the right sort of weight to wear on holiday.  I went in and it was my size, and having tried it on, it came home with me. £6 well spent.

Then along to the wool shop, where I managed to get some Anchor threads to match the DMC colours I was looking for. Will have to put those on winders tonight with the DMC number on them.  These are for the Benjamin Bunny x-stitch.

I wandered down to the other charity shops, but left empty handed, as I did from the book/art shop as they didn't have the Liberon Gilt Cream I was after.  I need it for touching up the horse picture frame and the jar I have has dried up.  I have tried adding a little White Spirit since coming home and hope that may just revive it enough for me to use.  I don't need much and don't want to spend £15 on another one just for this little job.

Llandod has a few nice little shops, including a good health food shop, and in the summer, the Rock Park and Spa is pleasant to wander around, and there are nice walks around the Lake and through the nearby woodland too.

Then a quick trot round Tesco, sticking to my short shopping list and then back home. I set to, making the bread base for the Apple Yeast Bread for Alex tomorrow, then some Lemon biscuits. My temporary neighbour who is helping Ed out, popped up to see what I bought at Malvern, and we had tea and biscuits and a good natter. He's going to pop up on Friday and put up some masking tape for me in the guest bedroom, as I can't reach. It was good to have company and he had been feeling a bit lonely down there on his own too.

Now it's time to read my paper and do some sewing.

Today's Achievements and what £29 bought me

 Today has been a day of rest because I got very tired yesterday - driving in the dark for a good part of the route didn't help.  It took lots of concentration and I couldn't help but notice car-sized holes in hedgerows along the way, where folk had met black ice last week.  It takes a lot of concentration looking round the Fleamarket too, as I scan the stalls as I walk along - years of car boot sales and Fleamarkets have taught me to quickly appraise what is on display.  Many stalls aren't my sort of things at all and I can move swiftly on. Some take more inspection, and I might stand for long enough to see what is on display.  Some you can tell that whilst there is nice stuff, it is going to be beyond my price range - I need to be the person that had it before them!  Some are worth lingering at and going through boxes, but the stand I wanted to be there yesterday wasn't.  So, here is what I spent my £29 on.

I've polished it up since, but it's a nice antique crotal bell of some size, expertly (as in by a saddler) attached to this loop of leather and with a (broken) small loop on the back. I thought it might have been attached to the collar of a big dog, but equally could have been worn by a sheep or goat or even a reindeer!  It polished up nicely anyway.

A pretty pierced tin bowl.

A wooden caravan which lends itself to having fairy lights (already ordered) put inside.  The stripes are shadow.

Today I have:

written a letter to my Dutch penpal

ordered my inhalers from the Surgery

bought another role of masking tape for decorating upstairs

tidied the kitchen table

finished reading two JD Kirk books (I was on the last few chapters of each, not complete book from cover to cover)

watched an oldish Youtube video(Archaeology) by Neil Oliver

wrapped JD Kirk books (5) ready to return to my friend G

ordered heating oil

had a video call with Tam and Rosie

done a few pieces of my jigsaw

rested

Last night I was so exhausted I was in bed by 8.30 and have my tiny bottle of wine to look forward tonight.  Last night I barely had the energy for a cup of tea. I was very glad I had thought ahead and defrosted my half a home made pizza for tea. I slept about 11 hours but had to get up for the loo and to let Alfie out.

Tomorrow I will spend sewing I think.  Many thanks Sharon for trying that block out yourself (looks gorgeous) and I just need to take it slowly.

D - thinking of you and of R.  

I go Commando at Malvern .. .

 I went to bed early last night, but was still awake at midnight as I was TOO HOT!  I had a restless night and was awake again at 5 a.m.  I got up at 5.30 and got dressed in the dark. I was late getting to Malvern though as I drove steadily as it was pitch black and I was tired before I started. Then there was a detour at Llyswen as the A479 was  shut for repairs, so I had to go out onto the Brecon road to Bronllys and back to Glasbury. I would normally take the B4350 through Boughrood and Cwmbach, but wasn't sure whether it might still be sludgy/icy like our lane was here yesterday.  Anyway, it was 8.30 before I got to Malvern, and the car park was heaving and nearly full (Malvern opens at 7.30 and I am normally there for that).

Not much on offer in the way of quilts, but this pretty little pinwheel would have been £13 (or near offer).

Outside, there were a lot of cold and desperate house clearance bods. The chaps with the fur coats and kilts weren't there . . .  There was a LOT of poor quality and unremarkable "stuff".  It was ages before I bought anything, and even then I only bought 3 things today.  £29 worth.  I have never had such a bad day.  Keith would have been better off as there were probably 15 or 20 stalls selling various militaria, including two which both had de-activated machine guns.  I saw friends Simon and Mike and had a chat, but no other friends stalled out there or walking round.

In working order and only £45.  I used to have one just like it (but with a darker and better top and drawers).  I regret selling it now.

Antique dolls, and in tiny boxes, equally tiny bits for dolls houses.

There was a lot of dross like this.

Slightly better.

Now for  some much better tables.

I had been walking round for half an hour perhaps when I became aware that all was not well in the undergarment department.  In fact, there was quite a disastrous wardrobe malfunction!  I had grabbed a pair of pants from my underwear drawer in the dark, and it soon became apparent that these were Elderly.  (I had been having a shuffle through the drawer the day before and these had obviously got pushed to the front).  I could feel them sliding lower and lower and thank heavens I had trousers on or I'd have been stepping out of the wretched things!  I made my way back to the car and then had a struggle to cut the blardy things off.  It was not helped by the flattened zipper on my new warm coat (shut in the door the other day).  I didn't dare undo the coat for fear of not being able to get the zip up again.  So it was a bit of a battle, although fortunately I wasn't overlooked.  I got the giggles thinking what Keith would have made of the situation.  He would thought it was hilarious and I don't doubt offer to help!!  Anyway, I spent the rest of the day walking round knickerless!

I don't think this chap was having a very good day.

These last half dozen photos taken in the Avon Hall, which is a bit more civilized and has heating.  I walked past the sweetie stand where Keith always bought some dark chocolate gingers, and when he couldn't go any more I bought them for him.  It was so sad thinking about it. 

Anyway, time for the other half of my pizza that I made last week and froze.  Then I have a tiny 2 glass bottle of white wine.  Cheers.

The inconvenience of winter!

Shall I do a Facebook moan, where all these "privileged" people think they can talk others down and that They Know Best. They appear on nearly every post these days.  I follow (amongst many others) the Dartmoor Public Group where there is - almost daily in this cold spell - a big spat between the people who live up on the moor and know how it is up there when it snows, and those people from the towns who see it as their playground, and then block narrow lanes when they park up, get stuck and demand help, or even - for heaven's sake - have to be told to shove off when they come up after dark and build snowmen on the plot in front of people's houses in a certain moorland town, making so much noise that the occupants have to come and tell them where to go as they are waking their toddler!

We're above the snowline here.  Looking out on my slightly slippy walk this morning, you can see the snow is still laying on the hills and all the local lanes.  Pretty though it is, I want it GONE now! I do not need daily updates from the news telling me that we are all in for temperatures "up to minus 20".  Well, some poor devils up in Scotland are, but not this part of mid-Wales.

This is where I turned round on my walk - a big ice slick on the pull in to a barn.  When running water, it had also gone along the lane and it was dodgy in parts so I had to be careful where I stepped.

Icy splinters.

The lane was clear here, but had a border of icy chippings thrown up.

This is the track to our house, still a bit snowy/icy/slippy. Most inconvenient!!  However, I did go down to the town today to visit the Library, and get the Saturday paper, and draw some money out for Malvern tomorrow (Fleamarket).  I may leave a bit later than usual though and will avoid my slightly-shorter-cut along the lanes to Glasbury and stick to the main roads instead.  Will see how it warms up today.  Even with the windscreen cover on the car, I had to put the blowers on full to unfreeze the wipers which had stuck-to on top of it and the windscreen, and de-ice the other windows. I shall take bread and cheese, a flask of  Mulligatawny soup and I'm about to make a Chocolate Apple Cake.

I didn't go out to the Heritage (history) Society Christmas meal last night, as I didn't trust our slippy track and knew there were areas of ice along the lane in, having walked in on Thursday to collect the car from its MoT.  I just wasn't in the mood, and also had slight worries about being hugger-mugger in a tightly-packed room of folk for several hours, and catching the flu which is doing the rounds.

You can guess which one is for Tam to look at!

The last of the light coloured fabrics for the William Morris quilt.  On Monday I shall start cutting out the fabrics.  Executive decision has been made to leave out the square in the Ohio Star block.  Why make things even more testing for me?

Talking about things testing me, I pushed my nose to the grindstone yesterday and MADE myself work on the repairs to the Victorian quilt.  I knew it wouldn't be easy but persevered.  I shall try and do at least one little diamond a day, but it's hard when you are sewing through the cardboard shapes and trying to make any stitches on the back lining invisible and most of all, desperately trying not to rip any of the other VERY fragile silks.  Fortunately, I have a box of Japanese silk remnants which I think it was Elaine (Tales From Parsonage Cottage) kindly sent me a couple of years ago, finally they have come into their own.

Having searched frustratingly high and low in this house for a book I was more than 3/4 way through over Christmas and thought totally lost, I picked up my handy little shopping bag today to take my Library books back in and there it was.  I'm glad about that. (A Whisper of Sorrows, by JD Kirk).  So there was just the gilt cream to finish the frame on the horse picture which I needed to hunt down - again, I had seen it but thought I'd moved it somewhere.  When I looked properly just now, it came to light.  I'm a devil for not looking properly, or making piles of things (WIPs), or putting things off till tomorrow.  That is something I am attempting to put right in2025.  No procrastination!

So, completely fed up with being cold, not being able to get out, not being able to make proper plans, having the weather an unknown and rather worrying factor for future events (including the February Fair) and until today, not being able to get out for a walk either, I shall hold hard to the notion that winter is blardy Inconvenient!  Roll on spring.

Feeling spoilt

 

These BEAUTIFUL flowers arrived today.  I was stunned - then I realized what day it was, despite thinking about this date for the last week.  This would have been Keith and my 36th wedding anniversary. I had to quickly turn away from the deliveryman so he wouldn't see my tears, though he certainly heard them in my choked "thankyou".  The card read "Dad would want you to have flowers today - love, T, G & D."  I have the most thoughtful and loving children and am blessed. 

I have the slow cooker on with Hungarian Goulash nearly ready in it and have just put on the veg. Would you believe, the Broccoli I bought for 8p the week before Christmas is still perfectly fine to use and nowhere near discolouring.  Just goes to show that the stuff we normally buy and never even lasts the week is close to being ready to chuck when we buy it.

Tonight I am going to have a bottle of Weston's premium Organic cider and lift a glass to Keith.  Whilst he was still able to travel and walk, we often went to look around the Antique Shops in Leominster, as there's not many places to go for a day out in early January.  No chance of my heading that way today though, as quite apart from the weather, I didn't get the car back until 4 p.m.

Strangely, I happened to look up my waste-of-rations ex-husband today (before I'd realized the date) and found that he had died back in October.  He was 75 and I was surprised he'd made that age as he was a heavy smoker and never wore a mask when he was spraying cars. I felt nothing.  It was like he had never existed.  We had to meet up with him when Keith and I were moving to Wales, as he was co-signatory as an executor with me of dad's will and we needed his signature before selling my old family home so mum could follow us to Wales.  He refused, just to be blardy-minded and awkward, saying that he didn't think it was in my mum's best interests. Oh goodness, I knew that Keith was about to punch him, and had to grab his arm.  We left, but fortunately his girlfriend had a word with him and he changed his mind and came out to sign before we drove away. Keith and I were together for several years (and had Tam) waiting for the5 years to be up before my divorce could come through.  Once again, he did that on purpose, "barsteward" . . .

Today has been another day of cracking on with jobs which should have been done a LONG time ago.  This is one side of a border for a quilt I made and nearly finished before Covid . . .  These are now going to be hand quilted.  I finished the 2nd side when Keith was so ill. I haven't been able to face working on it again since then.

This booklet of Beatrix Potter x-stitch designs (I won't do the birth chart sampler with all of them) also surfaced today and I am going to start on Peter Rabbit as soon as I have finished brown Santa.  I also found a little envelope of spare embroidery threads which I have wound onto spools now too.

I bet I don't have half the colours!, but I do have plenty of 14 count Aida.

This is the new colour (Verdigris) going up in the guest bedroom.  Pretty with the sun on it  The elderly matt white and blue are going. Tea is ready now.  Keep warm.